Jimmy Hoffa

James Riddle "Jimmy" Hoffa (14 February 1913-30 July 1975) was an American labor union leader who served as President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from 1958 to 1971, succeeding Dave Beck and preceding Frank Fitzsimmons. Hoffa was known for his corruption and his ties to organized crime, and he was ultimately murdered by the American Mafia in 1975 for threatening to go public about his links to the Detroit Partnership member Carol D'Allesandro.

Early life and activism
James Riddle Hoffa was born in Brazil, Indiana, United States on 14 February 1913 to a father of Pennsylvania Dutch descent and a mother of English descent. His father died when he was seven, and the family moved to Detroit, Michigan in 1924. Hoffa became a manual laborer at the age of fourteen to support his family, and he rose to a leadership position in a grocery chain union while he was just a teenager, becoming a union organizer at a young age. In 1932, he became an organizer for Teamsters Local 299 after being fired from his job, and he was instrumental in expanding the Teamsters' membership across the Midwest, although many workers were fired for becoming unionized.

Detroit labor activism
In 1935, Hoffa met Italian-American truck driver Bobby Ciaro, who became his right-hand man after his original henchman Billy Flynn was killed during the arson bombing of the Idle Hour Laundry. Ciaro helped Hoffa with making an agreement with the Detroit Partnership of the American Mafia, which initially considered killing Hoffa due to his interference with their unfair labor practices; Hoffa instead offered to have some trucks go off course so that the Mafia could steal them, giving them a profit even as the Teamsters went on strike. Hoffa's alliance with the Mafia would allow for his union to grow strong, and he was disappointed when his successful boycott of Kreger's grocery chain was credited to Red Bennett, who was made business director of the local instead of a disappointed Hoffa. However, Hoffa was loved by the Teamsters, who formed an army to assist him with the 1942 Railroad Transport Agency strike, which ended in a massacre of the unionized workers by the non-unionized workers.

Rise to power
In December 1946, Hoffa became president of Local 299, despite never having worked as a truck driver. In 1952, Dave Beck named him national vice-president for supporting Beck's candidacy as IBT president, and he moved to Washington DC in 1955 when the IBT headquarters was moved there from Indianapolis. In 1958, he became the new president of the Teamsters after Beck was indicted for corruption, and his first steps in office were to fire all of Beck's staffers, including his longtime rival Red Bennett, and to bring cronies such as Frank Fitzsimmons and his nephew Peter Connelly to power; Ciaro remained Hoffa's chief lieutenant.